New club foot treatment rolled out

Linda Mzapi
Zimbabwe has embraced a new medical rehabilitation method – Ponseti —to treat children born with the deformity known as club foot.

Children with the condition are born with one or both feet turned inwards and can appear upside down, looking like a golf club.

Approximately 500 babies are born with clubfoot each year in Zimbabwe and about 200 000 worldwide, with 80 percent of them in developing countries.

The Health and Child Care Ministry and the Zimbabwe Sustainable Clubfoot Programme piloted the Ponseti method early this year and rolled out a countrywide programme a fortnight ago.

The rehabilitation method, offered free of charge, is faster and cheaper than the Kite method previously in use.

The programme was rolled out at 13 central and provincial hospitals and will be decentralised to district level.

Director of the Zimbabwe Sustainable Clubfoot Programme Mr Ryan Bathurst said the condition could be reversed and children would lead a normal life.

Responding to questions from The Sunday Mail, Mr Bathurst said: “92 percent of children in Zimbabwe with clubfoot have had complete correction. The risk of relapse is less than five percent and the child will be able to run, jump and play just like any other child, the feet will look completely normal.”

ZSCP has provided training to over 450 Health Ministry doctors, therapists and technicians, as well as Medicine students at the University of Zimbabwe.

Harare Central Hospital physiotherapist Mrs Blessing Madzimure urged parents with children with club foot to take advantage of the programme.

“The sooner a child is treated the better the results will be,” she said. “Some parents tend to hide their children because of beliefs that associate clubfoot with witchcraft. Communities are not appreciating disability and it is causing many children to be disabled for life instead of receiving early treatment.”

The exact causes of clubfoot remain unknown. However there is a strong genetic link and studies have shown that it is mostly prevalent in Asia and Africa south of the Sahara.